The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-23
A M1LL1oNA1REs WIFE.
The Mother of the Present Vanderbilt
Family and Her Astonishing Career.
From the PHILADELPHIA Press

Fifth avenue, saw a little woman, who. at
the first glance, would not tempt the eye to
rest upon her an instant, a plain everyday
little woman of the kind men of sense most
admire, of the kind that supplies the world
with good mothers and wiveS-one of those
quiet, modest ladylike bodies that one sees
SO many thousands of in the big cities with
out really noting them unless a second
glance reveals the genteel plain
ness or their attire, the trim
ness of their figures and the
almost shy pre-occupation of their minds.
Yet, If one lived in an age of marvels, OF of
brigands, and this unimpressive little figure
was stolen from the city and held for ran
som, she could bring her captors twenty-five
millions, aye four times as much, and with
out impoverishing her family. For, as she
was pointed out to me- | was told
she was Mrs. William H. Vanderbilt,
relict of the man who when he lived was
the richest man OH earth. And yet she
wore no diamonds, showed no CLINT of gold
or silver from head to feet, and she was
walking--like the rest of U.s.
Some few very rich persons are interest
ing in spite OF their wealth. She is admir-
able apart from hers--in herself. Impor-
tant, rather than interesting, is the word to
apply to her career Neither she nor her
husband foresaw-perhaps they never since
thought OF 1.-THE consequence of her bring
ing into that stolid, accretive Dutch blood
rhe admixtme of her distinctly different
temperament She was Miss Nissan,
daughter of an American clergyman, whose
stock was, think originally English. She
had the extreme good fortune to marry
Vanderbilt when he was working for
his father for 81 900 year, poor dependent,
and as thoroughly in awe of the old
Commodore as when he was a lad. She
married bill, =" as he was called, when he
had no thought of anything but farming
Welded thus to hard work, simple fare and
the proverbial Dutch duty of constant
motherhood, her husbands ambition en-
forced Strengthened circumstances upon
both, for, on taking full charge of the farm,
he heavily mortgaged the land to get the
means to develop it. In those years her
part was to work and save with might and
main and to feel the care and pain of a
rapidly increasing family. Amid these
circumstances her character devel-
oped and amid them her girls and boys were
born-all of them to work.
INHERITED MATERNAL TRAITS.
All their present millions would not buy
them what this gained for them because
with those conditions came modesty, conf
dence-the discipline of childhood in the
family of q thrifty, hard-headed working
man; and their father was so much of a
workingman that it is the firm belief of
every Vanderbilt that he killed himself
finally by overwork. But quite equal to
this training was the mothers blood in their
veins which tempered the Vanderbilt ma
ture and broadened it in channels leading
far away from the good enough, but al
together narrow, Hollandish qualities of the
Vanderbilts. The old Dutch stock of the
entire valley of the Hudson is all alike
Its qualities-except the grossly sensual
ones-are mainly admirable and calcu-
lated to keep the descendants far from the
poor-house. You see these people in great
numbers in Albany, Newburgh and Pough-
keepsie, and they are all heavy eaters, stall
wart drinkers, members of big families and
rich. You do not see among them any love
of literature and, except a fashionable fond
ness for art, any public spirit that is not
either hard to move or ostentatious All
distinct stocks, such as that, need leavening,
and that is what Mrs. Vanderbilt did for her
part of that stock. Her daughters are some
thing more than mere women and she has
helped them into good marriages. The boys
are all better than mere money -grabbers;
they are ambitious beyond and apart from
that
She bore Vanderbilt eight children: Mar
garet, now Mrs. Eliot F. Shepherd, Corne-
Illus, William X, Emily, now Mrs. Emily
Thorn Sloane, wife of the great carpet
dealer: Frederick w. Florence Adele, now
=
Westerner, now in charge of some of the
heavier Vanderbilt interests; Leila, who
married DR.. W. Seward Webb, son of the
old fighting editor, DR.. James Watson
Webb and now head of the New York Cen
trial Parlor Car Company, and George W.,
the eighth child and fourth son. Not girl
has married what in England, is called an
''aristocrat;" an idler. Every man-jack of
their husbands made his way in the world
before he married q Vanderbilt. The boys
also took care of themselves. The
two elier sons, Cornelius and
William K, want to enter public life-try
to imagine the Commodore or William H.
harboring such a thought, if you can They
want to distinguish themselves among and
for the people But for the Henry George
movement last year, one or the other would
have been nominated for Mayor by the Re-
publicans; but the brothers hadsense enough
TO see what an ugly fight that would make.
Cornelius works harder than most very
poor men, Like President Cleveland,
he cannot leave details to subordi
Mates He is what you might call the
head of finance of the Vanderbilt system,
chairman of the Board OF Directors of the
Central and Harlem, and deep inresponsi-
bility on the other lines. He is 10 years old,
and worth about $75, 200, 900. When he was
N hoy his father got him clerkship in the
Shoe and Leather Bank. He refused a tour
of Europe then because it would take him
from his desk, and he is just as assiduous
now, so much so that his friends fear he is
hurting himself. Fancy man worth
S15,000.000 killing himself with work.
Queer world, isn't it!
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SONS.
William X. takes life much more easily
and holds lighter Offices Still he has his
hands full aud works every day, eleven
months in the year, as most men would
never dream of doing had they his enormous
pile. He got substantial training in his
youth, also, as "a clerk in the office of the
Hudson River road. Neither of these men
has any vice or any hobbies except that of
attention to business. Both go straight
home from their work, are true to their
wives and fond of their families, possess
libraries that they en- oy and encourage
their wives to devote time and money
TO worthy charities. Their younger brother
Fred tha third boy, is credited with
being the smartest of them all He is be-
lieved to have turned the S12,00O,O00 he
started with into $50, 900, 900 already He
seems To have inherited an uncommon share
of the genius of the old Commodore. Fred
revealed his talents before William II. died.
Once when the old man came home from
Europe, he found that his boys had all been
up to the neck in Wall street William X.
and Cornelius were all tangled up, and
glad to interest their father and use his adj
vice TO make their losses as light as posi-
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